Manchester United 3 – 0 Newcastle United | how old is scholes and Giggs ?

Manchester United began their Premier League campaign in style with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle.

United went to this game with 4-4-2 by putting rooney along with Berbatov upfront and Scholes started along with fletcher in the midfield. Nani and Valencia are the wingers. O’shea started in the right back position with Vidic and Evans patrolling the center of the defense.

First 20-25mins of the game was dull as united took time to settled in  but the credit should be given to Newcastle for the way they defended. United had kept the position and showed the patience which in general is they style of play in the beginning of the season. Newcastle also had few good chances in this period but they couldn’t convert them.

The breakthrouh came in the 33’ when Scholes played a through pass to Berbatov who is just onside. Then Newcastle defense didn’t tracked the pass properly and Berbatov showed his class and scored his first goal of the new season and first for United.

The second goal came when Evra attacked on the left side and sent a cross which found Fletcher near to the goal and he scored a simple goal. The second half was bright for United as they created many chances but couldn’t convert many. Then Rooney was substituted by Hernandez and he looked like adding another to his impressive list but he was judged offside. Then Giggs who came on as substitute for Nani collected the precise pass from Scholes and scored a beautiful volley for the third goal on 85th minute.

It looked like Rooney was off color but still his work rate is good. He missed ball many times in the box and now he is 13games away from his last goal for United. Nani also again showed that he not so comfortable on the left side but did good defensive duties which allowed Evra to move forward. Valencia did his job on the right wing by providing straight runs and crosses into the box.

Did anyone observed? Vidic got forward more in the game. that is because, Newcastle played 4-4-1-1 and the second striker had join the midfield which leaves the united central defense with not much worries and vidic took the opportunity and got the ball forward when ever he can.

Now, how did paul scholes managed to control the game ? Scholes actually played deeper than Fletcher, means Fletcher moved forward more often. When he moved forward, the newcastle midfield has to follow him leaving some space for scholes which he used effectively. At the same time credit should be given to Fletcher as well since he dragged newcastle mofield towards him and made many diagonal runs and passed the ball to wingers and overlapped with them.

Now for Berbatov, isn’t this kind of display all United fans have been waiting for from him? He looked constant threat in the game. Also he played very deep at times and his link up play was wonderful. He scored one goal but failed in a one on one with the keeper in the second half. When he dropped deep and started hitting the ball forward and then making the runs….isn’t this berbatov we all saw at Tottenham? So, we can hope that this time he will have a good season. Even SAF told that this could be his season which shows that there is some change in Berbatov that SAF might have observed in the training sessions.

Definitely good signs for united as they are able to keep the position and create opportunities. United’s golden boys, Giggs and Scholes looked in good touch.